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According to Bord Bia, 119,000 visitors attended Bloom this year, not far behind last year's record attendance of nearly 120,000. This brings the total number of visitors to over 1m since the event first took place in 2007.
This Monday saw chefs and media from Hong Kong discover Irish food on its home turf. The chefs were finalists in an EU-funded competition to design a fusion eastern-western beef and lamb menu. Chinese social media influencer Lingluo joined them to share her impressions of Bloom and Ireland with her 1.8m followers.
Our Chinese visitors are here today for a taste of #Bloom2018. They are meeting with some of Ireland’s best producers and learning about how #OriginGreen operates on a national scale; uniting government, the private sector, farmers and food producers. pic.twitter.com/uc4bHlw8qR
— Origin Green (@OriginGreen) June 4, 2018
According to Bord Bia, 6m Chinese consumers watched an interview she conducted with the food board's chief executive Tara McCarthy and Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed during their trade mission to China two weeks ago.
"This is a great opportunity to continue to raise the profile of Ireland as a source of quality food and beverages as we look to expand the range of exports into China and Hong Kong," said McCarthy, especially in terms of food safety, sustainability and authenticity. "China is now Ireland’s third largest market overall while Hong Kong is one of the most exciting places in the world for cuisine right now which is a great fit for Irish food and drink."
The visitors from Hong Kong will go on to visit Irish farms and factories this week. China has approved six Irish beef factories to export there in recent weeks.
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